Preface

*Global Market and Trade* provides knowledge, recommendations, and practical solutions to new challenges within the contemporary processes of globalization and international trade.

Globalization and world trade management are considered the most crucial factors in the intelligent and sustainable development of knowledge-based economies. The global market is of scientific and technical interest and is related to the interpenetration of processes and phenomena of a technical, organizational, marketing, social, and psychological nature. This is due to the indisputable impact of information technology and the interdisciplinary nature of the organization of the global market on socio-economic development. This affects the competitiveness of enterprises and is subject to previously unknown management processes. Contemporary organizations have faced new realities of management, which have modified management methods both to the dynamically changing environment and to the means of communication used. In this way, the choice of topics in this book is also a reference to future global socioeconomic problems.

The current globalization forces business entities to modify the previously used management concepts or to create them anew according to applicable standards, rules, and even market trends. This book pays special attention to the issues of contemporary foundations of the global market and trade based on the development of information technology and new geopolitical and religious conditions. In addition, it includes empirical models that present detailed practical problems and creative elements of management in the socio-economic system. This book indicates that current knowledge and technology are the basic factors stimulating socioeconomic development, influencing the transformation of the global environment and increasingly stronger competition.

Section 1: "Contemporary Foundations of the Global Market and International Trade" contains three chapters on the general conditions of the functioning of the global economy. Chapter 1: "Rethinking Financial Globalization" discusses the financial phenomena that are so important today in the global market. ITC technology and the rules of financial flows are the most important changes in modern globalization and world trade. Chapter 2: "Trade and Culture: Religion Dynamics" explores the social (cultural and religious) conditions of world markets and trade. Chapter 3: "Utilizing e-Tendering in the Procurement of Construction Project" presents practical solutions for the functioning of global markets with IT devices and applications in the construction industry.

Section 2: "Empirical Models of Detailed Assumptions and Conditions in the Global Market" contains three chapters on empirical research. Chapter 4: "The Nonlinear Dynamic Impact of Development-Inequality in the Prudential Policy Regime in Emerging Economies: A Bayesian Spatial Lag Panel Smooth Transition Regression

Approach" presents the impact of development inequality on policy in emerging economies and how it translates into functioning in the global trading world. Chapter 5: "The EFQM Model as an Exquisite Tool for the Analysis of Business Excellence and Its Use in the Healthcare Industry" shows the possibilities of using specific methods to assess business models in the modern economy, using the health industry as an example. Chapter 6: "The Dynamic Effects of Monetary Arrangements on Bilateral Trade in the African Franc Zone" presents an analysis of the functioning of monetary arrangements based on a selected currency and their effects on trade in the global market.

We would like to thank all those who contributed to the creation of this publication, especially the chapter authors for their inspiring scientific considerations. As the editor of this monograph, I hope that many of the presented issues will motivate the reader to become interested in the subject matter, which will translate into undertaking their own investigations and developing innovative solutions to the discussed research problems.

**Ireneusz Miciuła**

Department of Sustainable Finance and Capital Markets, Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

## Section 1
